hackersthegamefandomcom-20200223-history
Sentry
In-Game Description "Sentry is an antivirus that when activated copies itself to other nodes. It spreads fast and deletes enemy programs along the way. Upgrade it to make it stronger." Summary The Sentry is an offensive Security Node. During the Brute Force phase in a hack, the Sentry spreads an Antivirus to its connected nodes simultaneously. Antivirus The Antivirus will take 20 seconds to install itself in Business or Hacking nodes (needs further testing!), which is represented by small black dots passing through the network link. The Antivirus will install itself to Security Nodes instantly. Final installation is indicated by a large black dot passing through the network link and the Business or Hacking node will turn black. Nodes that are being upgraded will not receive an Antivirus. Nodes installed with an Antivirus will spread the Antivirus to other nodes and will attack connected captured nodes. A node with an Antivirus will stop spreading and attacking if it has been captured. It will continue spreading and attacking if it has been released by offensive Security Nodes. Statistics * Node Connections: 4 * Program Slots: 4 Appearance Like a majority of the nodes in your network, each node's appearance changes every 2 levels. Level 1 looks like the picture above. Level 2 and 3 has brighter glowing red hexagon. Level 4 and 5 has a gold line trim on each triangle. Level 6 and 7 has a small gold trim and a red hex pyramid orbiting around the Sentry. Tips Placement / Amount The maximum number of Sentries you can have is 3. This number increases by upgrading the Core at its respective levels of 3 and 5 .However, having more than 1 or 2 Sentries will rarely prove effective as this number is usually enough to spread the antivirus program together with the other Security Nodes in your network. If you have more than one, consider if you want to destroy it and build extra resources, or keep it for that extra bit of defense. There are exceptions though, where having 3 Sentries will help you out against very specific attacks that rarely appear. The placement for Sentries is best in the middle of your network, connected straight to your main Security Nodes. The antivirus program will spread quickly in the front and just a bit longer in the back. If your defenses are rather spread out, then you can use two of them if they are connected correctly to ensure that all the nodes get the antivirus program. If your network is poorly constructed, a Sentry could be rendered useless as described in the section below. Tips for Defense Placing the Sentry too close to a netConnection and not connected to your defenses will result in it getting captured too fast and will not be able to spread its antivirus program. This not only weakens all other nodes, but more specifically your main Security Nodes. Place it too far away and all your other Business Nodes will receive the antivirus program, but not your Security Nodes as they will not be reached by it. The best strategy is to place either 1 or 2 of them directly connected behind your other Security Nodes. As soon as they receive a copy they will themselves behave just like a Sentry, spreading the antivirus further. Remember: Sentries do not stop the advances of a hackers, but rather slow it down by a small margin. Do not rely on them as your main protection. They are most important early-game to protect against inexperienced players. Mid-late game they become a rather random minimal extra layer of defense that has to be connected to your main defenses for that extra punch. Tips for Offense Sentries have four Program slots and a high Firewall. Besides that, there's not much to talk about in this section. There's a good tactic early-game for new players against a poorly built network: if the only Sentry is right at the beginning and is not directly connected to a Security Node, capture it as fast as possible and no antivirus will be spread at all in the network, making the network easy to compromise. Other Tips * The faster you take down Sentry nodes the better. Do not give it a time to spread over network too much. * Sentries too close to a netConnections are exposed to intruder's programs. * Only one instance of Sentry antivirus can be installed on one node no matter how many Sentry nodes are around. Putting two Sentries next to each other doesn't make your defence two times stronger. * Connecting the Sentry to other security nodes, like the Turret or Black ICE nodes, makes it spread faster. Since they are already secured, the antivirus can be installed on it straight away and enable it to spread the antivirus further. * When a network's security is activated, Sentry starts installing antivirus to connected all nodes simultaneously. * It will take 20 seconds for a Sentry to secure a Business or Hacking node (turn it black). Security Nodes do not need to be secured. Then it takes 0.5 seconds to install the antivirus. There is a visual animation for the installation of a large black data packet being transferred. * Nodes that have been installed with the antivirus will start spreading the antivirus to its connected nodes simultaneously. * There is a visual buffer displayed on bottom part of a node during antivirus installation. * Antivirus can not be installed or spread with nodes that are currently being built or upgraded. * Antivirus from Sentries of higher level will overwrite antivirus from lower level Sentries in a network. * At higher levels the sentry doubles in efficiency, dealing 2x as much damage to overall structure firewall percentage. At level 1 the sentry deals 3.2% of the structures firewall in damage, at level 21 this increases to 6.5% per second. The sentry therefore becomes much more powerful in terms of efficiency when upgraded. The limitations in these statistics are that it's not precisely accurate without an overall average of all firewall values. References A Sentry is one type of ICEs found in the Netrunner collectible card game. Category:Node Category:Security Node Category:Defenses